As promised, The Essential Maggie McNeill, Volume II is here! Now that I’ve figured out how to fit working on the books into my schedule, I should be able to keep up the pace and put one out every three months for about another year. My next project, Ask Maggie, Volume I, will contain about 80 of my answers to reader questions; I’ve already made the selections and plan to start editing them as soon as I go back to Seattle after Easter. So barring unforseen developments, it will be out in July. If necessary, I could do most of the work here, but it’s harder to write here because I don’t have the quiet and privacy my brain needs for focus (not to mention distractions like building bookshelves). Anyhow, you can buy the book at Amazon (and here’s the Kindle edition); if you prefer an autographed copy, they should be available in my bookstore in the next day or two. Thank you for reading!
Posts Tagged ‘advertising’
The Essential Maggie McNeill, Volume Two
Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged advertising, Ask Maggie, blogging, The Essential Maggie McNeill on April 6, 2020| 1 Comment »
In the News (#1024)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged Above the Law, advertising, agency denial, California, censorship, disease, Facebook, fantasy, Florida, homosexuality, hysteria, Minnesota, Monsters, New York, Oregon, porn, rape, Social Distancing, stripping, The Pro-Rape Coalition, The Public Eye, The Widening Gyre, transgender, Twitter, United Kingdom, Wise Investment, You Were Warned on March 25, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Curfew and quarantine enforcement inevitably mean new opportunities for police overreach, profiling, and violence. – Elizabeth Nolan Brown
Even rent-a-cops feel entitled to rape sex workers:
A hospital security guard has been jailed for 14 years for the rape and violent assault of two sex workers…one of the victims was forced to jump naked from a window to get away from Noel McKeon…as he tried to stab her. The attacks, on June 18, 2016 and on February 2, 2018, both took place after McKeon contacted the two women [for outcall]…
Timothy Blancher, 20, Alunte Davis, 21, and Paris Cameron, 20, all attended a party with a 19-year-old man they met at a gas station in Detroit. Hours after he left the group, Devon Robinson, 19, burst into the house wearing a masked and…gunn[ed] the three…down…Jurors found Robinson guilty Tuesday of the May 25, 2019, murders…committed…to cover up…that he had engaged in sex…with the three victims…
Predictable in the current Neo-Victorian climate:
Playboy has announced that it’s closing down its flagship magazine for the rest of 2020. It seems unlikely, given the wording of the announcement and the state of print magazine-making, that it will ever return. It’s not a surprise, exactly — its circulation and advertising drooped long ago, accelerating as the nudie pictures for which it was celebrated became available everywhere for free…
This won’t end until it starts inconveniencing the wealthy & well-connected:
…Oprah Winfrey’s name…trend[ed on Twitter after]…a series of tweets…alleged that the celebrity’s Florida home had been raided by police, who were “digging up the tunnels” there in connection with an alleged sex trafficking ring. (…Oprah has no home in Florida)…the tweets put forth theories: some noting the friendship Oprah enjoyed with Harvey Weinstein, others suggesting the novel coronavirus epidemic was somehow engineered to shift the spotlight away from the arrest of celebrities involved in the alleged ring…includ[ing] Tom Hanks and Justin Trudeau…
Sex workers, clients & everyone else harmed by “prostitution stings” needs to keep suing over them:
From January through March [of last year], at least four men responded to online ads f[rom a pervert cop fantasy role-playing as] a [sex worker] named “Brittany” who…asked each of the four men to meet [him] at a hotel, but first to stop at a gas station before to buy [him] a treat such as a candy bar or a can of pop…Cases against them were dismissed, first by a district court, and then by a three-judge panel of the Minnesota Court of Appeals…[because] the [prosecutor] charged the[m]…with…soliciting prostitution….[which] has to come in a “public place”…cops and…prosectors…didn’t prove any of these men was in [public] when they texted [the masturbating cop. Though]…the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office [vomited a lot of disgusting nonsense about]…human-trafficking…[all over the court, it still]…rul[ed that]…there’s no evidence indicating [the cop was fantasizing he] was underage, or a victim of trafficking, [while msturbating, and] the…language on gross misdemeanor solicitation is plain, and applies only to “public” acts…
A reminder of what the government is trying to take away from you:
It’s almost hard to believe now, but there was time when Twitter, Facebook, and other forms of “participatory media” were widely heralded as great gifts to public perception and global democracy. For going on nearly half a decade now, the tone on tech companies and social media has shifted to one of suspicion, hostility, grievance, and moral panic. But as COVID-19 continues to spread around the world and as many governments continue to mishandle things, people are starting to remember why the platforms we love to hate are important after all…Social media have also been providing news from early outbreak zones across the globe, as users widely disseminate stories from foreign news outlets, statements from foreign leaders, and first-hand accounts from residents of affected areas abroad. These snapshots helped give Americans a better sense of the scope of the threat posed by COVID-19 at a time when the messages coming from official channels were conflicting and confusing…
As always, sex workers demonstrate our adaptability:
Portland will not go without its strippers, even during a…pandemic. Lucky Devil Lounge is bringing its dancers to your door with a new food delivery service it’s calling—wait for it—”Boober Eats”. “I originally did it at first as a joke,” says club owner Shon Boulden, “and it got 150 shares on Facebook—like nothing we’ve ever had before. So I was like, ‘Well shit, why don’t we just try to do this?'” Lucky Devil has a full food menu and non-alcoholic drinks, like ginger beer and Red Bull, available for delivery. The process is similar to many the home drop-off systems that have sprung up overnight as a way for restaurants and breweries to continue operating…Simply peruse the menu online, give the business a call and place your order….[but] instead of being greeted a harried driver in jeans and a hoodie, your meal is hand-delivered by two dancers. “They’ll wear pasties and booty shorts, drop off the food, dance for a second and then we’ll move along,” Boulden says. “We’ll still stay a reasonable distance back. They have Lysol as well”…the strippers will also pose for photos…
Free Speech Coalition…called for a voluntary shutdown of all adult entertainment productions in the United States and Canada through Tuesday, March 31…”we ask that producers cancel all shoots through March 31, and recommend that performers immediately stop filming with partners who are not a part of their household”…
Prohibitionist whining is becoming increasingly desperate:
The MTA [was paid to] display…a series of advertisements promoting a “Sex Workers Pop-up” exhibit…[prohibitionists moronically labeled the text-only ads]…“sexually oriented” [even though they merely advertised an art exhibit]…and [bloviated a lot of their usual puritanical idiocy about how consensual sex is]…inherently harmful. The pastel pink promotions, up since early March on subway lines across the five boroughs, was bankrolled by George Soros’ Open Society Foundation and invites commuters to a West Village “exhibit dedicated to the global sex worker movement”…
For You As Well
Posted in Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged activism, advertising, censorship, Friday the Thirteenth, holidays, politicians on March 13, 2020| 3 Comments »
It’s only been three months since the last Friday the Thirteenth, so absolutely everything I said in that essay is every bit as true as it was in December (and September, and July of ’18, and…) so you really should go and reread one or all of those if you need a refresher on what this day is about (especially paying attention to the excerpt from “Straight Talk“). Since the last two were so recent, I don’t think I need to rehash them already; instead, I’d like to share something I wrote on request a few weeks ago about how sex worker rights is not an isolated issue:
Though many people conceive of sex worker rights as a “special case”, in truth it intersects with many other movements. Because sex workers are of every ethnic and national group, sex worker rights intersects racial justice, migrants’ rights, and even religious freedom (goddess-centric pagan groups are often targeted by US police). Because the majority of sex workers are female, sex worker rights is a feminist issue, and because male police use deception to gain sexual access to sex workers, that should anger those fighting against rape. Because many if not most sex workers are LGBT (most male sex workers are gay, many female sex workers are lesbian or bisexual, and roughly 30% of trans women have done sex work), sex worker rights is an LGBT issue. Because disabled people are often unable to obtain physical intimacy by other means, and because many suffering from chronic illness or mental health issues find sex work a flexible and accessible means of support, sex worker rights intersects with the rights of the disabled. Because criminalization of sex work is nothing less than the criminalization of a motive (sex for any reason other than profit is not banned), it should be of great concern to those interested in intellectual freedom issues. Because “fighting prostitution” has been used an excuse for internet censorship, internet freedom groups should be very worried, and because the same excuse has been used to dramatically expand mass surveillance (facial recognition systems and social media spying software were first tested on sex workers), privacy rights groups should be as well. Because people are arrested and subjected to penalties for consensual acts, thus feeding more nonviolent people into the carceral system, sex worker rights is of major importance to libertarians, anti-carceral groups, criminal justice reformers, and those fighting police violence. Because sex work is a form of work and most sex workers are self-employed, both labor rights activists and small business associations need to pay attention. And even fiscal conservatives should be angry about the incredible waste of tax dollars going to pay police to spy on, brutalize and incarcerate people for nothing more than adult consensual sex.
In short, this isn’t just about us; to paraphrase Donne, the bell of tyranny is tolling for you as well.
Taxing Questions
Posted in Perception, Q & A, Tyranny, tagged advertising, Craigslist, Mentoring, screening, sex work is work on March 12, 2020| 2 Comments »
Many years ago I was in the business through Craigslist, but am looking to get back in as a true courtesan. Two topics baffle me and I’d appreciate your advice. First is screening; I never did this before, just used my gut and only once regretted it. Is this a common practice? Do men give their real info? Second: I have a legitimate job, so what I make here is going towards debt and savings. I want to deposit any money in the bank. Do I need to pay taxes? Do people want to pay with credit cards? Should I form a LLC?
I think you should do a bit of research before going any further with your plans. You can start with my “mentoring” and “screening” tags, both of which should give you plenty of material to help with your questions. Next, you need to get rid of the idea that sex work is not a legitimate job, because it is, albeit a suppressed one. Many people who have a square job and just do a little escorting on the side do not report their cash income even though it’s illegal not to, because prostitution is already illegal so I guess they figure “in for a penny, in for a pound”. But being a “true courtesan” is a full-time job; if you’re going to go that route it would be most unwise to completely avoid taxes because the IRS will destroy your life if they catch you. If you’re only doing it as a side-hustle you probably don’t need to take credit cards or start an LLC, because you simply won’t have the kind of volume that requires that. However, it’s easy enough to take credit cards via Square. And if you’re going to start an LLC, you had best think long and hard about what you’re going to claim it does, because banks and such are nosy and will cut you off (and possibly steal your money) if they think it’s from sex work.
(Have a question of your own? Please consult this page to see if I’ve answered it in a previous column, and if not just click here to ask me via email.)
In the News (#1017)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged A Moral Cancer, advertising, Alabama, Amsterdam, avails laws, brothels, California, Canada, censorship, consensual crime, Cooties, cops, Crying for Nanny, drugs, Dutch Threat, escort services, evidence, fantasy, fascism, Florida, hotels, internet, language, law, lawyers, Netherlands, New York, Only Rights Can Stop the Wrongs, porn, prisons, propaganda, Pyrrhic Victory, rape, red-light districts, rescue industry, Stupor Bowl, surveillance, Swedish model, Thailand, The Mote and the Beam, Theatrics, To Molest and Rape, Torture Chamber, Tyranny by Consensus, universal criminality, Whither Canada? on March 1, 2020| 4 Comments »
“Decriminalise Sex Work” is not…an ideological argument any more than “Black Lives Matter”. – Empower
Even journalists reporting on these abuses insist on referring to them as “correction”:
A [human being locked in a cage by] Alabama [“authorities”] died weeks after he was [savage]ly beaten by a[nother prisoner], beaten again and hog-tied by [screws], and then denied treatment by a nurse…a secret Alabama [government]…report contains shocking details about the death of Billy Smith, including apparent efforts to conceal the timeline of events and obscure the roles that [subhuman monsters euphemized with the Orwellian term] correctional employees played in his fatal ordeal. Smith…was found dazed and injured on the floor of a bathroom…in November 2017 after another man…punched him in the head…[screws] then beat Smith, hog-tied him, and left him strapped to a gurney [where he]…lay untreated for at least an hour…bleeding heavily from his nose and pleading for help. [Screws eventually] took him to a nearby prison medical facility, where a [so-called] nurse [shouted “stop faking!” at him and left him to die. Hours later he slipped into a coma]…and…never woke up again. He died 26 days later from blunt force head trauma…
Suffolk County [New York] is proposing a law that would [ban smoking] in apartment complexes, condominiums, and multi-family dwellings…[because politician, physician and violent busybody] William Spencer…[fantasizes that] smoke can permeate through…walls, electrical lines, [and] plumbing…[politician] Sam Gonzalez is sponsoring the bill…“When I get the push-back from individuals that say, ‘No, you can’t stop me from smoking,’ I say ‘[Sure I can, by sending violent thugs to spy on you, smash down your door, brutalize your family and murder your dog]’” Gonzalez said…
Just another typical and representative cop predating on vulnerable women:
A suburban New York [cop] is behind bars after being charged with repeatedly [raping] a woman while supposedly investigating a theft. Peekskill [cop] Michael Agovino [i]s being held…on charges including sexual abuse and stalking…[after] the woman secretly recorded Agovino demanding sex…in January…
Why does California keep trying to destroy or drive out a lucrative industry?
The Adult Performers Actors Guild (APAG) has called for the resignation of the board of their own “mother union,” the International Entertainment Adult Union (IEAU) following the revelation…by…[sponsoring politician] Cristina Garcia that the controversial California bill AB2389…was “brought to them” by the IEAU…No prominent sex worker group…[was] contacted by Garcia before…the…bill proposal[, which] mandates…that…all adult performers, from porn actors and actresses, clip creators, webcam models, and dancers…pay to be licensed, complete a training program, and submit their fingerprints for criminal records checks…[it] requires…performers to keep their licenses with them at all times, and be subject to inspection at any time, including at their homes…the bill…[refers to stage names with the pejorative “]false name[” and includes “]human trafficking[” mumbo-jumbo and anti-migrant language]…The advisory committee who decides who gets licensed and who doesn’t would consist [mostly] of [outsiders, including prohibitionists]…
A special room rental complex for prostitutes or an “erotic centre” complete with prostitution, sex theatres and other facilities are the two most likely options on the table to reduce tourism in Amsterdam’s red light district and [enable] the s[urveillance] of sex workers…The [declared] aim is not to replace prostitution in the red light district, but open the door to alternative locations so sex workers can relocate if they feel more comfortable…Five different scenarios have been looked at and discussed with locals, sex workers and [cops]…
Only Rights Can Stop the Wrongs (#939)
Thai sex worker activists are made of awesome:
…The Thai Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act (1996) is fast becoming an orphan law running counter to the moral code of modern Thai society…It has reached the point where police must instigate the transactions themselves in order to make any prostitution arrests at all…Despite significant expenditure and 60 years of criminalisation, the Thai law has spectacularly failed to end “prostitution” in Thailand. Instead it has filled the pockets of corrupt authorities, who use it as a tool to extort money from the country’s sex workers. It has become an insurmountable wall standing between sex workers and access to justice and human rights…
A small but important victory in Canada:
A[n Ontario] judge has ruled that sections of Canada’s prostitution law violates the constitution in a landmark case surrounding…Tiffany Harvey and Hamad Anwar who ran an escort agency in London. The couple was charged in 2015 when police raided Fantasy World Escorts…several [bogus] human trafficking charges were dropped [but] they remained charged with advertising sexual services, making money from the sex trade, and procuring for the sex trade. Those charges have now been stayed as Justice Thomas McKay ruled that they were unconstitutional, a decision that is likely to be appealed by the [Liberal government which while campaigning claimed it would repeal the law]…the…decision is in regards to this case only….[but] will serve as a test case for higher court cases…
On the morning of Nov. 8, 2019, Sacramento [cops] arrested a…woman…for carrying an open alcoholic beverage and for [using a stage name] when they [accosted] her…because she was walking…on…“a known prostitution stroll”…[pigs] used facial recognition to [root up her government name so they could charge her with]…false ID…The [cop shop] contracts with a company called DataWorks Plus to capture and store mugshots…and…since late 2017…has been able to run its growing trove of images through a facial recognition database that DataWorks created [specifically for pigs]…
The Miami Herald and local TV news mindlessly parrot copaganda, but not the alternative press:
…routine bust[s] of…147 people for…simple prostitution in the 12 days before the [Miami] Super Bowl…[were claimed by cops and prosecutors to be “connected”] with…sex-trafficking crimes…the [raids] swept up scores of [ordinary]…sex workers simply looking to make ends meet — and, once again, [demonstrates that]…the supposed boom in sex trafficking that occurs around the Super Bowl every year is, in fact, a myth…
…the U.S. Department of Justice held a “public workshop” on Section 230. Predictably, it wound being up a greatest hits of the half-truths and paranoid bellyaching commonly employed against this important law…Section 230 has never prevented the Justice Department from enforcing federal criminal statutes against online violators…[yet] U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr opened the event…by saying that “criminals and bad actors now use technology to facilitate and expand the scope of their wrongdoing and the victimization of our fellow citizens”…But [in reality] the statute…provides the legal framework that allows companies to actually try to keep exploitative content offline…Lurking in [his] comments is the schizophrenic proposition girding a lot of Section 230 opposition: that getting rid of it would somehow permit freer speech online and keep online spaces “safer” and more palatable for everyone…
AirBnB is trying to shield itself from the fallout of the hotel industry’s eager copsucking:
Airbnb is expanding its commitment to [fascist collaboration with pigs and NGO]…profit[eers]…as the hospitality industry faces a series of lawsuits [result]ing [directly from its kowtowing to fanatics instead of fighting hysteria]…Airbnb is coming up with incentives to encourage hosts to [submit to indoctrination]…Airbnb [conspiracy with] Polaris…[is intended] to provide [the company] a [shield from the many nuisance lawsuits enabled by FOSTA. Ambulance-chasers]…representing [soi-disant] human trafficking victims want…a single federal judge to oversee multiple lawsuits a[ttempt]ing t[o profit from hysteria over so-called]…human trafficking [before it implodes]…Attorneys asked a federal panel to consolidate at least 21 such lawsuits pending in 11 states into a single case in federal court in Columbus, Ohio, arguing that the lawsuits contain the same basic allegations…About 1,500 [opportunists] have retained lawyers in the various lawsuits and as many as 7,000 are expected over time, said Paul Pennock, an attorney with the New York-based firm Weitz & Luxenberg, which is leading the efforts to consolidate the lawsuits…
This is at least the fifth iteration we’ve seen of this same inane stunt:
[“Sex trafficking” fetishists from Covenant House masturbated furiously while looking at BDSM porn they openly displayed on a Toronto street. Through their animalistic gasps of pleasure they moaned that] women and girls are just products to be sold — or rented, rather, again and again…The campaign strives to [indoctrinate] young people…[with] sex trafficking myths a[bout] warning signs…and…teen victims…[in hopes they’ll ignore the truth about sex work they can learn from activists] through social media…
Every Four Years
Posted in Diary, Miscellaneous, Philosophy, tagged activism, advertising, blogging, holidays, hysteria, psychology, The Essential Maggie McNeill, The War on Whores on February 29, 2020| Leave a Comment »
This is only the third leap year since I’ve started the blog; since it doesn’t come around often, I don’t really have any set pattern for what it should look like. But when I looked back at the last one, I found some guidance:
Where will I be on February 29th, 2020? Will I still be posting every day, or will I have wound down somewhat? How many new books will I have written? Will I still be living in Seattle? What will my income be like? What new experiences will I have had? How well-known will I be? Will the “sex trafficking” hysteria be over, as I predicted just before that last Leap Day? Will I even be alive? There’s no way to know, or even to guess; the only way to find out is to wait.
There’s been a lot of change since then, but fortunately not as much as over the four years before (though I’m traveling more than ever). Obviously I’m still posting every day, but aside from news columns the average length is shorter and Fridays are sometimes quite short. My fourth book will be out soon, and I have plans for two more this year and three next year, including a third collection of short stories; I also have a documentary, The War on Whores, that was still in the talking-about stages last leap day. I’m still spending most of my time in Seattle, though of course now I have my farm, Sunset; on the last leap day I hadn’t even decided to relocate yet (that didn’t happen until December of that year). I’m making about the same as I did four years ago, but expending a lot less effort to do so; in fact, I don’t do traditional escort advertising any more except for my personal website and free ad sites, and I plan to mostly stop taking new clients at the end of this year unless they have impeccable references. I’m still alive, but unfortunately so is “sex trafficking” hysteria; however, it has backfired on its creators and promoters in a way I didn’t quite predict, with over half of Americans now supporting decriminalization (many of them because of the hysteria rather than in spite of it), and strong pro-decriminalization momentum in a number of US states. And as I head toward the tenth anniversary of this blog, I’m seeing a slow shift in the way I live my life (for the better, I think). Will I be around to answer these same questions on February 29th, 2024? Only time will tell. But as I look at all I’ve done over the past decade, I can say that I’m reasonably satisfied with my life and accomplishments. And as that’s not something I’ve ever really been able to say at the end of any prior decade, I think it’s enough.
In the News (#1015)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged activism, advertising, agency denial, Bahamas, bogus studies, China, cops, Cops and Robbers, drugs, Facebook, fantasy, FBI, Follow Your Bliss, harm reduction, Harm Reduction updates, I Spy, internet, Ireland, Israel, law, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, politicians, porn, Portugal, prohibitionist myths, propaganda, racism, rape, robots, Rooted in Racism, Rotting Fruit, Safe Position, Science!, sex offender registry, South Carolina, stripping, surveillance, Texas, The Course of a Disease, The End of the Beginning, To Molest and Rape, Under Every Bed, underage, Washington (state), Washington DC on February 22, 2020| 1 Comment »
If someone wants to protect me they need to ask what helps me.
– Gali, a stripper in Tel Aviv
Sometimes “trafficking” just means “bringing in brown people”:
Adil Muhammad…was…ordered to complete 240 hours of community service in lieu of a four-year prison sentence for his role in providing fake passports to six…Afghani Sikhs…Judge Martin Nolan [declared the humanitarian assistance]…a human trafficking scheme…but [admitted]…he had become involved after a family friend contacted him and asked him to do so. “His motivation was some misplaced loyalty”…the six individuals were all from one family and had [paid facilitators the State defines as] a criminal group in order to traffick them…to Europe…
To authoritarians, loyalty to friends and family over the diktats of megalomaniacal racist sociopaths is “misplaced”.
A juvenile probation officer…was caught with hundreds of images of child pornography. John Russell Cahill, Jr…was viewing child porn [on his wife’s computer] in San Angelo [Texas on April 15th, 2019 when]…a Facebook marketing company [spying] on…[the] computer…using remote desktop software [saw him and] contacted [NCMEC, which on May 14th reported him to the cops, who then waited until] June 20th…to search his computer…Cahill admitted [guilt but wasn’t arrested until February 10th]…
Human and labor trafficking are growing problems in Florence County, according to South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson…“human trafficking is happening within five minutes of your house as we speak,” said Wilson [while masturbating a pig called] Michael Nunn [who belched out that the reason was] “I-95 and I-20″…Nunn [in turn wanked]…Wilson [who panted that] a lot of victims of human trafficking don’t even realize they’re victims…
I’m getting pretty bored with quoting the same old authoritarian fantasies about highways, “criminals”, passive vegetable-like women, etc. Does it show?
It’s been a while since we’ve seen the claim that disasters cause “sex trafficking”:
Employees of the Louisiana Department of Family and Children’s Services received [indoctrination] on how to [label people as] victims of human trafficking…[prohibitionists pretend] human trafficking can happen after a natural disaster. “Traffickers take advantage of that,” [moaned bureaucrat] Leanne McCallum [with her hand in her pants]…
Why are men with so much to lose so goddamned stupid about sex?
Ten women filed a civil class-action lawsuit…accusing one of Canada’s wealthiest businessmen…Peter Nygard, of raping them at his…mansion in the Bahamas and operating…a “sex trafficking ring”…Three of the women were 14 years old at the time of the alleged rapes. Three others were 15. The alleged rapes took place between 2008 and 2015…There are no criminal charges associated with any of the allegations…The lawsuit goes on to accuse Nygard of drugging women…[bribing] Baham[ian cops and politicians]…and…paying police to threaten to arrest them…[Nygard’s lawyer] said the lawsuit is the latest in a decade-long attempt to destroy his reputation by his former neighbour in the Bahamas, U.S. billionaire and former hedge fund owner Louis Bacon…[which] began as a noise complaint and has evolved into multiple lawsuits in multiple countries…
Even if the lawyer is telling the truth, Nygard foolishly opened himself up to it by skeevy behavior.
The End of the Beginning (#697)
Maybe we’re about to witness the beginning of the end of these evil laws:
A federal judge struck a major blow…to a Michigan sex-offender registration law, declaring large portions of the law unconstitutional and that the law cannot apply at all to offenders whose last offense was before 2011…The lawsuit was brought in 2016 by a group of John Doe sex offenders, all of whose offenses occurred before the act underwent amendments in 2006 and 2011. The first of those made it illegal for offenders to live, work or loiter within 1,000 feet of a school, and the second required them to immediately report any new email or instant message accounts, phone numbers and vehicle license plates to police. Those provisions, U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland…ruled, are too vague. The reporting rules…are also unconstitutional…[and] since the amendments are not severable from the law itself…pre-2011 offenders are free from the law and its registration requirements in their entirety…
Sex [work] in a US city was [not] significantly disrupted by a [rescue industry] group that deployed decoy chatbots [to trick] tens of thousands of men. During a two-year period, Seattle Against Slavery posted fake online adverts that connected people with chatbots that [bad]ly posed as sex workers, before [non-consensually] delivering [lurid BDSM text porn]…The campaign, which also involved placing more than 2m Google adverts [try]ing [to scare] people [out]…of buying sex…led to a 50% decline in [people interacting with the bots in the future]…Robert Beiser…[of] Seattle Against Slavery…present[ed] the [claim]s at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Seattle…[lying that] “In a fairly short length of time…we were able to impact the marketplace pretty dramatically…it would possibly be easier to order a sex-trafficking victim online than to order a pizza”…
I worked in Seattle in 2015-16, as did most of my friends. No, there was no “significant impact” on our business; hilariously, what these wankers appear to have done was taught a few thousand guys how to search for escorts more effectively so as to avoid unwanted pornbots.
Nebraska’s claims to be a “sex trafficking hub” are probably the most pathetic:
Former FBI [fantasist] Anna Brewer visited First United Methodist Church in Springfield…to [share her sexual fantasies]…about human trafficking…an estimated 900 individuals are sold each month for sex in Nebraska, with 70 to 75% showing signs of being trafficked… “People that look like me sell their children, people that look like me are sold for sex, so [distrust everyone you see and call the cops on anyone you don’t kn]ow…Drug traffickers are realizing that there is less risk and greater reward in selling a person than there is in selling narcotics”…She [moronically parroted that] the average lifespan of a trafficked human is around seven years from his or her first commercial sex act…
The Course of a Disease (#927)
Israeli prohibitionists are trying to criminalize all sex work:
Dozens of demonstrators…took to the streets in Tel Aviv to protest…Police shut[ting] down three strip clubs…after an administrative order was issued by the state prosecutor. [A spokespig oinked that] the decision [w]as a protective measure for women…[because] lap dances could [possibly] be deemed illegal [by powerful busybodies]…women…decried the closures, saying the move…jeopardizes their livelihood…
Why we can’t have nice things:
A grass-roots effort to decriminalize D.C. sex work [stalled] last fall, when the city council declined to vote on a bill…Now a national group wants to help take the issue directly to voters, offering deep-pocketed donors and veteran strategists to build support for a ballot measure. But…local sex-worker activists who were pushing for the bill…want nothing to do with the group because one of its founders was accused of sexual misconduct during his time as a marijuana advocate…The D.C.-based Sex Worker Advocates Coalition released a statement…saying it would refuse to work with the Campaign to Decriminalize Sex Work, in part because it does not want to associate with Rob Kampia, the campaign’s political director…Melissa Sontag Broudo, the campaign’s general counsel, said the focus on Kampia loses sight of the women at the forefront of the organization. She also said Kampia’s fundraising savvy and relationships with donors are crucial for an underfunded movement…“We need to put personal infighting aside for the larger goal, which is to not have people arrested for prostitution”…
For the record, I’d suck freaking Donald Trump’s dick if I thought it would achieve decriminalization. And I don’t give a good goddamn who gets the credit in the history books, because what I care about is ending the ability of the police state to brutalize people for thoughtcrime. I’m sorry so many others feel differently.
In November, Portugal will celebrate the 20th anniversary of…[drug] decriminali[zation]…Portugal made possession of small amounts of narcotics an administrative rather than a criminal offence, like the small fine one might receive for failing to put on a seat belt…Those caught with less than 10 doses of any drug…are seen by a psychologist, a social worker and a lawyer, and advised about treatment, harm reduction and support services…“We had freedom to do anything within the United Nations statutes on drugs, which means do anything except legalising drugs,” [Portugal’s drugs tsar Dr. João] Goulão says. “In the end, we went as far as we could”…The results have dispelled the doubts of the doomsayers, who claimed that Portugal would turn into a “paradise for drug tourists” and give the young easy access to narcotics. Between 1995 and 2019, the estimated number of addicts fell from 100,000 to 50,000, of whom 30,000 are receiving treatment…
Louisiana hides another molester cop from possible lynching:
A [typical and representative cop] who was once named Louisiana State Trooper of the Year [for exemplifying exactly what cops are]…was arrested…[for] producing child pornography. Jason Boyet…was [first] booked into the Tangipahoa Parish jail…[but] has since been moved to another location…State Police…[hid the] details…
Anyone who doubts that politicians are deranged megalomaniacs should be following this:
U.S. officials have been insisting to tech platforms that…encryption is a threat to public safety and that “back doors” must be provided for [pigs and spooks] to bypass security, all in the name of fighting crime. Meanwhile, U.S. officials have also been claiming that China-based tech company Huawei can use secret security bypasses that are intended for [American pigs and spooks to] use…in order to access data…[for] Chinese [pigs and spooks]…The same U.S. government that wants tech companies and telecoms to create secret software doors that would allow it to snoop on our private communications and data is also worried that other governments will be able to use those same back doors to do the same thing…Any back door that allows [pigs and spooks] to circumvent user privacy protections will ultimately be used by [other governments] with [equally] bad intentions…U.S. officials are insistent that Huawei has maintained secret access to these taps since at least 2009…
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